Provides an invaluable distillation of key topics in forensic medicine for undergraduate, masters, and postgraduate students

Essential Forensic Medicine covers the broad area of the forensic medical sciences, delivering core knowledge in the biomedical sciences, and the law and ethics surrounding them. Concise, accessible chapters cover a wide range of topics from basic forensic identification and examination techniques to forensic toxicology and psychiatry.

Written by internationally-recognized experts in the field, this authoritative guide offers complete chapter coverage of the legal system, courts, and witnesses; investigation of the deceased and their lawful disposal; and the duties of a registered medical practitioner and the General Medical Council. It instructs readers on the general principles of scene examination and the medico-legal autopsy including how to interpret the many kinds of injuries one can suffer―including those from blunt impact and sharp force, firearms and explosives, asphyxia and drowning. Further chapters cover sexual offences, child abuse, and using DNA in human identification, mental health, alcohol and drug abuse.